The Retool MCP server currently only supports OAuth 2.0 authentication. While OAuth works fine for interactive clients, it creates friction for headless/automated setups:
Access tokens expire after 2 hours
Refresh requires browser-based OAuth flow
No way to use a static API token (Settings > API) with the MCP endpoint
We ended up using mcp-stdio as a local OAuth proxy, but even that requires an initial browser auth.
Question: Is there any plan to support Retool API tokens as an alternative auth method for the MCP endpoint? This would make CI/CD and headless agent setups much simpler.
Related: Claude Code users face the same issue (anthropics/claude-code#65036).
Thank you for sharing these valid points about OAuth 2.0 authentication for the Retool MCP server and letting us know about your interest in an alternative auth method.
At the moment, the engineering team does not have any plans on their roadmap to support alternative auth methods. This is because MCP is considered distinct from the API and interactive by design, so MCP use cases are seen as separate from Retool API use cases.
That being said, I will create an internal feature request for this to consider adding in the future! If there are any updates I will be sure to share them here
